April Conference Notebook

As you review the April 2012 general conference, you can use these pages (and Conference Notebooks in future issues) to help you study and apply the recent teachings of the living prophets and apostles and other Church leaders.

“What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken; … whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” (D&C 1:38).

“We can be delivered from the ways of evil and wickedness by turning to the teachings of the __________” (L. Tom Perry, “The Power of Deliverance,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2012, 97).

2.

“We are not diminished when someone else is __________ upon” (Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2012, 31).

3.

“The truths and doctrine we have received have come and will continue to come by divine __________” (D. Todd Christofferson, “The Doctrine of Christ,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2012, 86).

4.

“This life is training for eternal exaltation, and that process means __________” (Ronald A. Rasband, “Special Lessons,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2012, 80).

Stories from Conference

Building Lasting Foundations

As a young man I worked with a contractor building footings and foundations for new houses. In the summer heat it was hard work to prepare the ground for the form into which we poured the cement for the footing. There were no machines. We used a pick and a shovel. Building lasting foundations for buildings was hard work in those days.

It also required patience. After we poured the footing, we waited for it to cure. Much as we wanted to keep the jobs moving, we also waited after the pour of the foundation before we took away the forms.

And even more impressive to a novice builder was what seemed to be a tedious and time-consuming process to put metal bars carefully inside the forms to give the finished foundation strength.

In a similar way, the ground must be carefully prepared for our foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal integrity.

Our choosing the right consistently whenever the choice is placed before us creates the solid ground under our faith. It can begin in childhood since every soul is born with the free gift of the Spirit of Christ. With that Spirit we can know when we have done what is right before God and when we have done wrong in His sight.

Those choices, hundreds in most days, prepare the solid ground on which our edifice of faith is built. The metal framework around which the substance of our faith is poured is the gospel of Jesus Christ, with all its covenants, ordinances, and principles.

One of the keys to an enduring faith is to judge correctly the curing time required. …

That curing does not come automatically through the passage of time, but it does take time. Getting older does not do it alone. It is serving God and others persistently with full heart and soul that turns testimony of truth into unbreakable spiritual strength.

President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency, “Mountains to Climb,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2012, 24.

Questions to Ponder

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Can you remember a time when your personal integrity was tested? How did you respond?

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How does serving God and others in faith strengthen your spiritual foundation?

Consider writing your thoughts in your journal or discussing them with others.

Additional resources on this topic: “Faith” in Study by Topic at LDS.org; Richard G. Scott, “The Transforming Power of Faith and Character,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 43–46.